


like the tick of a clock

by dizzy



Series: we're all fucking fine 2020 advent fics [15]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Teenagers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:42:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28252587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dizzy/pseuds/dizzy
Summary: Cas works after school at an ice cream and pie shop. Dean works after school for the mechanic next door.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Series: we're all fucking fine 2020 advent fics [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2035990
Comments: 7
Kudos: 41





	like the tick of a clock

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: _your reddie roller rink is one of the best things i have ever read. it is perfect. i would Love something about teenage dean and cas somewhere similarly safe, in a time and place that exists somewhere adjacent to everyday reality, just starting to see each other in a new and beautiful way. no looking evil or homophobic witnesses. just them hanging out, being soft._

Dean always smells like motor oil and sweat when he comes in after work. 

Cas probably shouldn't like it as much as he does. It feels strange and dangerous and like he's getting away with something that shouldn't be allowed when he slides Dean a slice of pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream across the counter. 

Maybe it's the way Dean looks at him and grins or the way his voice is a little throaty when he says, "Thanks, Cas." 

That's as far as it ever goes in public. High school is a treacherous place where being different gets the shit kicked out of you, or even worse, people just use their words to tear you down. Cas has gone his whole life mostly avoiding that. He's not that great a fighter and he's not that great with words so he tries to just weave his way through the middle. 

Dean is the opposite. He'll kick someone's ass and take the suspension with a shrug and a middle finger as he walks out the door. But Dean has his own reasons for wanting to keep things under wraps. He's never flat out told Cas but Cas knows that when Dean's dad is at home, he doesn't invite Cas around, so he can put two and two together. 

Luckily that's not something that happens all too often. 

-

Dean waits around for Cas once he's done working. Now that he's eighteen they officially made him a manager, so he gets to close up by himself on weeknights. 

Dean keeps telling him what a sweet gig he's got. Cas doesn't really know what his plans are for after he graduates, but he knows he's putting most of the money he's earning into a bank account. 

Independence is all he really wants. To feel like he's getting to choose his own destiny and not just follow the path he's supposed to follow. 

He said that to Dean once and Dean had responded with a snort and said 'must be nice.' It was one of those tense moments that happens now and then, when he gets a glimpse at how trapped Dean really feels. 

He hates that. He wishes Dean felt free to walk away, too. If he did, maybe Cas would feel like really making some plans for his life. But right now he's stuck in a place where he can't fathom moving on without Dean and he knows Dean isn't going anywhere while Sammy's still young enough to really need someone looking out for him. 

That's the side of Dean that no one else gets to know. The one that makes sure Sam has his favorite cereal and pants that fit no matter how ridiculously fast his growth spurts are happening and that someone is around to teach him how to shave and not make a fool of himself in front of girls and just... just to make Sam feel like there's a barrier between the weight of the world and himself. 

Like a parent should do, Cas always wants to say, but he knows that topic never ends well for them. Dean will fiercely defend that his dad has his reasons and he'll look so lost and angry and caged while he says it and then Cas always just wants to kiss it better. 

At least that last part he can do now. Is doing, in fact, leaned up against Dean's car. Dean has him crowded in against the driver's side door and the kiss is messy and a little forceful and a little desperate, just like Dean himself often is. 

"Come over?" Dean asks, when they pull back for air. "To the house?"

It might sound like a proposition, but it's not. It's something better. 

Spaghetti night. 

-

"Hey, Cas!" Sam grins from his spot on the sofa. He has a video game controller in his hands and his hair is a riot, a little too long and falling in his face. 

He smiles at the way Dean tries to ruffle Sam's hair. Sam is old enough to be a latch key kid, so he lets himself inside in the afternoon and hangs around until Dean is done with his after school job with a mechanic whose garage is next to the ice cream and pie shop that Cas works at. 

They'd spent the first six months of sophomore year circling each other before a tentative friendship slid into a tentative something else. Now Cas is someone who knows what Sam's favorite cereal is, too. Sometimes he helps Sam out with his homework. He tries to help Dean, too, but he's not sure if those study sessions end up really working. Sometimes he feels like he loses more brain cells than Dean gains. 

"Hey, Sam," Cas says. "How did you do on the pre-algebra test?" 

"I got a ninety-four," Sam says proudly. 

"Damn, kid. I haven’t had a grade in the nineties myself since..." 

"Never?" Sam teases. 

"Hey, don't be a little bitch," Dean warns. "Just because you're almost as tall as me doesn't mean you aren't still a punk. Come on, Cas, help me get this food going?" 

"Spaghetti?" Sam asks hopefully. 

"Hell yeah," Dean says. "And Cas brought us a pie." 

"Apple," Cas supplies, before Sam can even ask.

Sam pumps his fist. 

-

Cas starts the water boiling for the noodles while Dean takes a shower. He does the dishes while he's there, not because Dean asks but because Cas finds peace in things being orderly and he likes having a job to do. It keeps him out of his mind sometimes. 

He's so focused on rinsing the suds off of a plate that he doesn't hear Dean walking back in. Dean wraps his arms around Cas from behind and he smells like woodsy soap, clean and delicious. He kisses Cas on the neck and says, "You make a good housewife." 

"I am not a wife," Cas says, putting the plate down and turning around. 

"No, I guess you're not." Dean grins and he looks relaxed. He looks like he feels good, and that makes Cas feel better than anything. 

He's not a wife. He'd never be a wife. But he can imagine doing the dishes side by side with Dean in a place that isn't this, in a position with some permanence to it. 

Eighteen is probably too young to be contemplating things like that, though. They're not even out of high school. 

-

After dinner Sam goes into his room to do fourteen year old boy things, which as far as Cas is concerned consists of homework and reading comic books. 

Cas and Dean go to Dean's room to do very eighteen year old boy things, which consist of making out until they're basically dry humping in their jeans and then cooling off by watching some Friends reruns on Dean's shitty little black 24" tv set. There's no cable at the house and the VCR on it is busted so they can't get anything but the three main channels and sometimes PBS, but that's alright. Cas knows Dean secretly loves Friends, anyway. 

Cas pulls out a book to do some reading for his advanced lit class, and Dean ends up with his head in Cas's lap trying his best to bother Cas until he gets his full attention again. 

This is really the best part of them, Cas thinks. When it's nothing and no one else and he can pretend to be put out by Dean's neediness and Dean can pretend he doesn't love how Cas basically always has to be touching him when they're alone. It's so different from how they spend their days, existing in the same walls of their high school but rarely crossing paths and never on purpose. 

Last summer was nice, when they could steal away whole days like this. Sometimes Dean would work extra hours and Cas would just hang out with Sam. 

Cas doesn't like spending a lot of time with his own family. He doesn't trust the way they make him feel. He didn't know what it felt like to have a person he felt like he could be himself around until he and Dean became close. He didn't know what feeling accepted unconditionally even felt like. His family is... well, they're all about the conditions. 

"Hey," Dean says, butting his forehead into Cas's stomach. "Pay attention to me." 

Cas puts the book aside and runs his fingers through Dean's hair. It's clean and soft and feels good to touch. 

Dean must like the touch too, because his eyes close and he sighs. "Gonna put me to sleep." 

"Should I go?" Cas asks. 

Dean shakes his head. "Don't go." 

He'll have to soon, anyway. He does have a curfew, and they notice him more keenly when he isn't home following their rules than they ever do when he's actually in the house with them. 

But he has a few more minutes, maybe half an hour if he gets Dean to drop him off. 

As if reading his mind Dean says, "I'll drive you home." 

Cas nods and then tugs on Dean's hair. "Sit up." 

"Bossy," Dean says, but he does, opening his arms for Cas to lie against him, bodies stretched out on Dean's bed. It's that weird size between a twin and a full, just enough for the both of them if they're willing to be cozy. 

The silence is nice to a point, then Cas says, "What are you thinking about?" 

Dean's answers are never what he expects them to be. 

"How you and me oughta go on a road trip this summer." 

"A road trip? To where?" 

"Wherever the fuck we want, man. My Aunt Ellen wants Sam to come visit her for a couple weeks. I think she just wants to get him out of this hell hole. She's gonna give me some money for graduation, too, though. We could drive as far as we want. Go wherever we want." 

Cas doesn't say anything. He doesn't know how to. 

"Or," Dean says. The aggressive way he's trying to sound casual hurts Cas's ears. "Not. You know. If you already have plans." 

"Yes," Cas says quickly. "I want to." 

"Would your folks even let you?" Dean asks. 

"I don't care," Cas says. "I'm old enough." 

Dean rolls over, pinning Cas to the bed and grinning down at him. "For real?" 

"For real," Cas says, smiling. He puts his hand on Dean's cheek and he can feel stubble there. Dean likes that he can grow it well now. Cas is a fan, too. "I'll get some graduation money, too." 

"Hell yeah," Dean says, and they start to plan. 

-

Dean rolls the Impala to a stop around the corner from Cas's house. He never pulls directly up, because they go to school with a couple of Cas's brothers and that's just not a can of worms they need to open, as Dean would say. 

Cas waits before he gets out of the car. Dean usually kisses him goodnight. It doesn't feel right to leave without it, even though he's three minutes shy of being home late. 

"We really gonna go on that trip?" Dean asks quietly. 

"Yeah," Cas says. His voice is much firmer. "We are." 

"You sure you don't have like... other plans?" Dean finally looks over. "Getting ready for college, or whatever?" 

Cas shakes his head. "I haven't decided anything." 

Dean looks relieved. He'd never speak it out loud. He'd never tell Cas not to do whatever it was Cas wanted to do. But it's unmistakable, the relief. 

"We should go to the Grand Canyon. Or Roswell." 

"Roswell? Like the aliens?" 

"Like the aliens," Cas confirms, mostly because he knows it'll make Dean. 

"Jesus. You are a fucking alien," Dean says. He's resting half-turned to look at Cas and his shoulders are relaxed now. "Fine. We'll do both." 

Cas leans in. He's done waiting. Dean is laughing and happy and Cas is impatient for the taste of him again. 

Dean is still smiling when Cas steals his goodnight kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> Sarah is better than pie and ice cream, and I'll fight anyone on that. Thank you for the amazing beta reading, even in fandoms you don't care a bit about. <3
> 
> To the person that prompted this: I feel like I started out trying to capture what you wanted and it just kind of veered off course. But let me reassure you: in this little au Dean and Cas absolutely stay together. They go on an epic two week road trip and Cas goes to college and he and Dean stay together throughout it and Cas becomes a social worker fighting the system/bureaucracy and advocating for kids, to keep kids safe and give them the tools for a future they can control, and Dean works on cars and learns that he loves to cook and they get a dog and Sam comes to visit them every break home from college.


End file.
